It’s The Economy, Stupid

As Peggy Noonan points out in her weekend WSJ column, the “war on women” theme isn’t working so splendidly for Democrats: “This one is old and mined out.” Even more cutting is this line:

The advertisement that most captures the 2014 cycle is from Kentucky’s Alison Lundergan Grimes : “I’m not Barack Obama.” She looked for all the world like Christine O’Donnell, who uttered the most famous words of her 2010 cycle: “I’m not a witch.”

Ouch! Meanwhile, poll analyst extraordinaire Karlyn Bowman notes that “people are really feeling beat down by this economy.” Here’s six minutes with Karlyn about the numbers:

So why aren’t Democrats talking about the economy? What happened to Carville’s Razor—“It’s the economy, stupid.” If you want to see the simple reasons why a large numbers of Americans perceive the economy more clearly that the White House, check out “12 Charts That Show The Permanent Damage That Has Been Done to the U.S. Economy” by the cheerily named EconomicCollapseBlog. All 12 tell a story, but the one on the labor force participation rate is probably the most significant: